Howard Bilton is a serious art enthusiast with a special interest in emerging art markets. The Hong Kong-based tax lawyer is also the founder of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, a seven-year-old competition that is now a highlight of the region’s art calendar.

“One of the reasons we started the [competition] was to try to increase public awareness and appreciation of art by putting the best of Asian art in front of the general public,” says 48-year-old Mr. Bilton, chairman of the Sovereign Group, a wealth-management and tax consulting firm.

A panel of five or six judges — this year’s includes Singapore Art Museum director Tan Boon Hui, as well as noted curators David Elliot and Fumio Nanjo — chooses the winning artist from a group of 30 finalists featured in an exhibition. The winner receives US$25,000 and hands over the prize-winning piece to the nonprofit Sovereign Art Foundation. Works by the 29 other finalists are auctioned off at a dinner, with proceeds split equally between the artist and the Foundation. Past winners have included Chow Chun-fai and Tsang Kin-wah, Hong Kong painters who have achieved rare commercial success. This year’s winner will be named at a dinner in Hong Kong on March 16. Mr. Bilton — whose personal art collection includes hundreds of paintings, photographs and sculptures — shared his insights into the most important-art market trends.

1. Art is an asset class: “In Asia, art buyers look primarily at the investment potential rather than appreciating the beauty of the art. Many in the region see art as an asset class, so prices have headed dramatically upwards at regional auction houses. Being an artist is now viewed as a respectable career, but mainly because it is now possible to make a small fortune by producing art.”

2. Corporate involvement in the arts: “Ten years ago, when we started the Foundation, it was difficult to persuade corporate sponsors that there was merit in having their name attached to an art project. They didn’t see that adding anything to their bottom line. But now companies see that there is a correlation between those interested in art and the purchase of luxury goods and financial services.”

3. Auction houses as sellers of primary-market art: “It is difficult to gauge whether this is bad or good. Certainly it seems to produce record prices for fairly unknown artists and they get to keep more of the total sale price than they would through a gallery. But cutting out the galleries may ultimately act to the detriment of an artist. Galleries can nurture and plan the career of an artist.”

4. A challenge ahead for young Chinese artists: “It is difficult to see where the next wave of successful artists from China will come from. Many new Chinese artists are becoming formulaic, referencing their more-successful peers rather than trying for originality. It may be that the top rank of Chinese artists continue to get ever-bigger prices at auction because they are still a lot cheaper than the equivalent European and American superstars.”

5. Watch South Korea and Japan: “Korean artists have not tended to try too hard to sell outside Korea because they enjoy such good support at home. To become successful internationally they may have to step back with their prices before they can move forward, and I think they are reluctant to do this. Also, there is a lot of Japanese talent which doesn’t get widely seen outside of Japan.”